China industrial output slows dramatically
Friday, 13 March 2009
BEIJING, Mar 12 (AFP): China's industrial output has slowed dramatically, the government said today, confirming a bleak picture painted by data issued this week of an economy being hit hard by the global crisis.
Production at the factories of the world's third-largest economy grew 3.8 per cent in the first two months of 2009 compared with the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.
It was a steep slowdown compared with 15.4 per cent year-on- year growth in industrial output recorded in the first two months of 2008, according to earlier data from the statistics bureau.
The figures came one day after customs authorities reported a drop in February exports of more than 25 per cent.
Exports of industrial products dropped 17.1 per cent in January and February of 2009 compared with a year earlier, the statistics bureau said, underlining the hit taken from the recession in key markets abroad.
Industrial output by state enterprises was down one per cent in the first two months from a year earlier, while output at foreign-invested companies dropped 3.6 per cent, it said.
Production at the factories of the world's third-largest economy grew 3.8 per cent in the first two months of 2009 compared with the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.
It was a steep slowdown compared with 15.4 per cent year-on- year growth in industrial output recorded in the first two months of 2008, according to earlier data from the statistics bureau.
The figures came one day after customs authorities reported a drop in February exports of more than 25 per cent.
Exports of industrial products dropped 17.1 per cent in January and February of 2009 compared with a year earlier, the statistics bureau said, underlining the hit taken from the recession in key markets abroad.
Industrial output by state enterprises was down one per cent in the first two months from a year earlier, while output at foreign-invested companies dropped 3.6 per cent, it said.